Is Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO) a good investment right now? We check hedge fund and billionaire investor sentiment before delving into hours of research. Hedge funds spend millions of dollars on Ivy League graduates, expert networks, and get tips from industry insiders. They fail miserably sometimes, but historically their consensus stock picks outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk factors.
Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO) investors should pay attention to a decrease in hedge fund interest recently. At the end of this article we will also compare CRZO to other stocks, including Cyberark Software Ltd (NASDAQ:CYBR), NOW Inc (NYSE:DNOW), and Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc (NASDAQ:CRZO)
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According to most investors, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, old financial tools of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, We choose to focus on the moguls of this club, approximately 700 funds. These investment experts watch over the lion’s share of the smart money’s total asset base, and by following their matchless stock picks, Insider Monkey has revealed numerous investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points annually for a decade in their back tests.
With all of this in mind, let’s take a peek at the latest action encompassing Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO).
What have hedge funds been doing with Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 23 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -8% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group has the most valuable position in Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO), worth close to $52.9 million, amounting to 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Mariko Gordon of Daruma Asset Management, with an $37.4 million position; 2.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism encompass Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital, Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Krochuk’s GRT Capital Partners and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management.
Since Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there were a few hedge funds that elected to cut their full holdings in the third quarter. Interestingly, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management said goodbye to the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at about $14.7 million in stock, and Kyle Bass’ Hayman Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $14.4 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds in the third quarter.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Cyberark Software Ltd (NASDAQ:CYBR), NOW Inc (NYSE:DNOW), Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR), and Cyberonics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYBX). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to CRZO’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CYBR | 21 | 151818 | -2 |
| DNOW | 15 | 431160 | 0 |
| EDR | 8 | 60813 | -3 |
| CYBX | 22 | 434410 | -2 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 17 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $270 million. That figure was $161 million in CRZO’s case. Cyberonics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYBX) is the most popular stock in this table with 22 funds reporting long positions, while Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR) is the least popular one. Compared to these stocks Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.
